More About Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman

       The main concerns are the value given to material possessions which reflects the time in which it is thought to be written. The Islamic view of material possession is that less is better. There is an effort within Islamic culture to bridge the gap between the rich and poor by outlawing usury loans and taxing wealth but not taxing trades.

       Abdullah the Fisherman comes upon trouble feeding his family. The local baker sees his trouble and offers Abdullah an endless loan of bread and silver pieces until Abdullah's luck turns around and he is able to repay the loan. Abdullah quickly becomes too ashamed to see the baker because he is still not catching fish at sea. 

       One day, Abdullah catches what appears to be a human. He discovers that this man is a merman. This merman looks exactly like a human with the exception of being able to breath under water. The merman offers to help Abdullah by bringing him, in exchange for a basket full of fruit, pearls and jewels with which he can repay the baker.

       When the king saw the riches of Abdullah, he made him a Wazir in order to ensure that Abdullah's new-found wealth would stay within the kingdom. One day, as Abdullah is walking back from the shore, he notices that the baker is not in his shop. When he questions a neighbor, Abdullah discovers that the baker is sick.

       The baker was afraid to remain in business after Abdullah of the land had been initially accused of thievery by the king. When Abdullah of the land relays these concerns to the King, the baker is made the King's second Wazir.     

        "Quoth the King, "What is his name?"; and quoth the fisherman "His name is Abdullah the Baker; and my name is Abdullah of the Land and that of my friend the Merman Abdullah of the Sea." Rejoined the King, "And my name also is Abdullah; and the servants of Allah are all brethren. So send and fetch thy friend the baker, that I may make him my Wazir of the left. 

         The merman asks that Abdullah of the Land make the journey to Allah's grave and give his salutations and ask that the merman be spared from the Fire. The merman then convinces Abdullah to use an ointment, which gives him the ability to also breathe underwater, so that he may thank Abdullah the Fisherman with a meal in his underwater home. 

        When Abdullah of the land reveals that humans grieve and cry over their dead, the merman suddenly takes back his gift and exclaims that he cannot trust a people who do not rejoice when Allah takes what is his.


       The merman is not concerned with material possessions. No one who dwells in the water values physical things but rather, they are concerned with being able to salute Allah and to ask to spared from eternal damnation. Though the story ends abruptly, it reiterates the focus of merpeople - the afterlife and the pleasing of Allah.

http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/Vol_9/tale163.htm

 

The Life of Hans Christian Andersen

I found this version of the little mermaid story to much darker yet much more inspirational than the Disney version to which I am accustomed. This version dealt with mortality versus immortality and the power of love and sacrifice. Here is a look into Andersen's life to help explain why:

Hans Christian Andersen grew up in Odense, Denmark in a poor community. He desired to take his inheritance and forge a new life for himself in the world of art. Lady inmates at the Odense Hospital told Andersen folk-tales which became the starting point for his later work.

"In this respect Andersen also stands between two worlds: the popular old oral narrative tradition and the modern world with its culture of books and focus on the role of the author."

Andersen's poor father did own several books - one of which was the Arabian Nights.

When Andersen left his home in 1819 as a fourteen year old boy, he made an attempt to become successful in the world of theater (Odense had been one of a few cities with a theater). This attempt proved to be in vain and Andersen was sent to school to see if something couldn't be mad out of him.

"Having left Odense and opted for art, Andersen had only one option: to get up and get on. However, this was exactly the point at which he experienced the suffering and humiliation that follow from leaving one world without having quite been accepted by another and higher one, an experience shared by the Little Mermaid (1837)"

"Nevertheless, after his school years in Slagelse and Elsinore, Copenhagen also came to mean something positive in his development: here the proletarian Andersen acquired the culture and education associated with bourgeois circles in the Golden Age that encompassed the last years of absolute monarchy, and Andersen, fundamentally sensitive and sentimental, learned to use the light and ironic Copenhagen wit, particularly the lethal form he knew from the Collin family and from the dominant circle around the dramatist and critic Johan Ludvig Heiberg. Andersen's entire production of tales is, as it were, suspended between these two poles, heart and wit, sensitivity and irony, nature and culture..."


       Just like the little mermaid, Andersen ventures out on his own and fails in the world of theater which he loves. This could be considered a parallel to the little mermaid's loss of voice in order to become land bound. Andersen also grew up poor where material possessions were not of priority and during a time when their was no religious freedom. The little mermaid's desire to leave home and chase after an immortal soul reflects this lack of religious freedom as well as the trend in emigration to Denmark in a time of prosperity.

http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/liv/minibio/index_e.html